CEA welcomes BFI Strategic Plan

The Cinema Exhibitors’ Association has offered a broad welcome to the British Film Institute (BFI) Strategic Plan, published today.

The document sets out the BFI’s plans for 2012-2017, focussing on three broad strategic objectives:

- Expanding education and learning opportunities and boosting audience choice across the UK;- Support the future success of British film; and- Unlocking film heritage for everyone in the UK to enjoy.

Key to delivery of the first of these aims are a number of inter-related Lottery funding streams, including a new £28 million education scheme targeted at children and young people aged 5-19 and a £22 million Audience Fund, with strands aimed at joining up key film venues to deliver audience development activities and specific funding targeted on refreshing existing community venues.

Welcoming the Strategic Plan, CEA Chief Executive said:

“The BFI has set out an ambitious agenda with the potential to bring about a step-change in levels of public engagement with film. The vision set out in the Strategic Plan is one broadly supported by the UK cinema sector, but as the BFI have freely acknowledged, is one that can only be realised with the full and active involvement of the industry.

That is particularly true with respect to audience development, where we look forward to working with the BFI to ensure that the expertise of the UK cinema sector helps Lottery-funded programmes complement current and planned commercial activity and that scarce public resources are used as cost-effectively as possible.”